Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower Side Stories
by Border42
Summary: A place where I stick everything tangentially related to the actual fic.
1. What If 1: Terran Variable Gravity Well

What If 1: Terran Variable Gravity Well

"Space Monster..."

* * *

At the start, when she first gained her powers, Taylor had been unaccustomed to the feeling of... _its_ voice in her head. She had spent most of the last four and a half months in the hospital, screaming.

"_Look at all the **filth**. Don't you want to just... **burn** it?"_

As time wore in she had become more... used to the inhuman sound. To a point. She still _wanted_ to just lay down and scream every time she heard it, but she could manage herself now. Well, as long as she made an effort to keep it quiet, when it grew angry... Taylor shuddered.

"_Filthy humans, corrupting and **eating** away at everything. **Burn** it all."_

Taylor clenched her fists. "Just wait, I'll... do what I can." She spoke to herself.

She had wanted to be a hero, but she was labeled as a villain. Albeit, a villain who only targets _other_ villains, but the collateral damage involved in her battles was... _huge_, to say the least. And she couldn't even blame her powers for that, it was all _her_ choice. The destruction was the only way to quiet the voice. She told herself that the people she killed were villains, and if a few innocents got involved, well, they shouldn't have been around her fighting at all.

A small part of Taylor wondered where her morals had gone.

And now, Leviathan made a steady march on the city.

"_You're heart is as a star, let it **burn**."_

And so, Taylor made to do so.

Tattletale gulped as she looked at the cape who had just shown up. She had only been around for a few days, and didn't even have a _name_ yet, but she was well known. Namely, because her opening appearance involved a fight with the entirety of E88 that left every member dead, and a quarter of the city in flames. Thousands had died in that fight, and she had gotten labeled an A rank threat quickly.

No response had appeared, however, as Leviathan began an attack on Brockton Bay. So the nameless girl was left alone, and had now shown up for the fight.

The heroes were vaguely hesitant to let the girl join the battle. But she was powerful, her casual elimination of the E88 had proven that, and so she was eventually given an armband.

Tattletale stumbled at the first fact her power fed her.

_Trigger event left her insane._

_Circled back around to functional insanity eventually._

_Collateral damage intentional; believes it quiets a voice in her head._

_Can no longer think clearly._

_Genuinely believes that everyone who died from her attack deserved it._

"Oh, shit." Tattletale muttered.

"What is it." Grue questioned.

"That girl..." Tattletale pointed at her. "..._Really_ shouldn't be here. This is _not_ going to go well." And now came the question of _how_ to break this fact to the heroes.

She made for an awkward walk towards Legend, before she suddenly found herself on top of a roof, staring down Leviathan.

"Too late." She heard Grue say over the storm.

Before anyone, even Leviathan, could do anything, an eerie _howl_ echoed over the battlefield. Tattletale winced, at clutched at her ears.

_From the girl._

Tattletale looked back at the figure her power named, and so her _glowing_ with repressed power. There was a low screech, and with a terrifying whine, the girl discharged the power.

A white light illuminated the entire battlefield, and a wave of force sent Tattletale sprawling.

_Every non invulnerable cape near that was dead._

"Echo deceased, CD-5. Harbinger deceased, CD-5..." The armband echoed her powers pronouncement. "...Alexandria deceased, CD-5"

_Power supersedes others, including invulnerability._

No one even had any time to react to _that_ pronouncement, as the white light reached Leviathan.

_Initial burst an aftershock of launching the attack._

"Get down!" Tattletale managed to scream, before the attack hit.

A deafening _roar_ defined the hearing of every listener there. Tattletale screamed, as the blast wave hit her prone form, and shattered bone.

_Will die in 3 minutes without medical care._

"Heavy casualties, please wait." Her armband echoed.

"Not going to have that much time." Tattletale croaked to herself.

Almost no one had escaped that last blast unscathed. Those too close, had died. Those further away like her were in various states of dying, the power that girl threw around had no regard for forcefields or invulnerability. A few fliers had managed to escape the effects. But most did nothing.

Frozen in shock and horror.

Legend's hands dropped to his sides, as he observed the battlefield. Considering every other member of the Triumvirate was dead, Tattletale didn't blame him.

Leviathan... wasn't doing much better, honestly. Most of its body had been burned away in that attack, and bits of skeleton could be seen at numerous points. The Endbringer appeared unaffected by the attack otherwise, and... turned away.

__Task already completed.__

Tattletale would have laughed, if doing so wouldn't be so painful. The girl had done the Endbringer's job for it.

The girl didn't appear satisfied, and charged another attack.

Attack several times more powerful.

__Won't survive this attack.__

__Neither will Leviathan.__

__America will sink.__

"...And so this is the way the world burns." Tattletale murmured, as the aftershock from the firing finally reached her.

And Lisa died.

* * *

"...Bad idea."


	2. Side Stories: Undersiders-Piggot 1

Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower Undersiders/Piggot 1

_Sometime late Arc 3_

Emily Piggot absentmindedly shuffled the papers on her desk. Not reading anything on them, just calming herself in preparation for todays... task.

The Undersiders, and what to do about them. If it were up to her, she would have packed them all away within the hour of their entering PRT custody. As is, that had in fact been her plan.

Then she had gotten a phone call.

She still wasn't quite sure how she should have reacted when the Chief Director turned out to be the one in the other end of the line.

The Chief Director hadn't spoken much, just enough to issue an order to 'get Tattletale by any means necessary' offer a short farewell, and hang up. It's not like orders like that were unprecedented, the Chief Director had quite the reputation for giving out the oddest commands for no adequately explained reason, but it was something new to Piggot herself.

And so there she was. It wasn't like she necessarily _objected_ to the reformation of villains, quite the opposite in fact. But always, it was done from a position of power, where the villain had to make concessions. With the Chief Directors orders, that position of power was very shaky indeed, especially with the implications that, if necessary, the _PRT_ would be the ones making concessions in this scenario.

It left a poor taste in Piggot's mouth.

The obvious answer to this dilemma was to simply not let the villain _know_ they had any power at all in the arrangement, but with both a Thinker rating and a name like 'Tattletale', Piggot had a sinking feeling that wasn't going to work out all that well.

With an internal sigh of resignation, Piggot pushed a button on her desk.

The door to her office opened. "You called, ma'am?" A female PRT officer asked of her.

Piggot nodded. "Retrieve the villain known as 'Tattletale' from the cells, and bring her to my office."

With a nod of her own, the officer closed the door as she left the room.

* * *

"You, girl!" A female voice barked into the Undersiders cell block. "You Tattletale?" The newly entered PRT officer said, while pointing at the named figure.

"Yep." Tattletale replied.

The officer sharply shook her head to the right. "Come with me, the Director wants to see you – and no funny business, you hear me?" She pointed her containment foam gun.

"Hey, hey. Watch where you're pointing that!" Tattletale complained as her cell was opened. "Besides, I'm a Thinker. What am I going to do, talk you to death?"

"Arguments could be made..." Regent spoke up from his cell.

Tattletale mock scowled. "Well screw you too."

"Hey, all of you quiet!" The officer barked.

"Right, right." Tattletale sighed, and began walking out of the prison block behind the officer.

A moment passed, and Tattletale left the cell block.

* * *

Piggot looked at the teenage girl before her. "You're Tattletale?"

"Mhm." Tattletale made an affirmative sound. "So... what am I here for?"

"You're here..." Piggot shuffled her papers again.

"Habits like that are going to dry out your fingers, ya know?" Tattletale interjected.

Piggot paused, and took a deep breath. "... Because I want to make you an offer."

"An offer, why?" Tattletale quirked her head.

"Because you seem the most... salvageable member of your team, and I prefer to have as many heroes working for me as possible." Piggot answered. "And so, I will make you an offer of proba-"

"You're being pressured by a higher up to get me in!" Tattletale interrupted.

"What-" Piggot mentally stumbled slightly.

"I'm right, aren't I?" Tattletale began to grin. "It makes sense, despite your words, there was something about this arrangement you were dissatisfied with, and Shadow Stalker proves you're not _opposed_ to the concept... So there must be something more. Meaning: You're being pressured into making me join, and your irritation means that there's some sort of 'any means necessary' clause involved." Tattletale leaned back in her newly gained chair with the smug look of someone who knows they're in the position of power here.

Piggot's already sour mood downright curdled right there.

"So then... Well, the first thing I want is my team." Tattletale began counting off on her fingers.

"You're team?" Piggot questioned.

"My team." Tattletale confirmed. "They all get pardons and I only join if you can manage to convince _them_ to join up too. And just between you and me." She leaned in closer. "Good luck with Regent." She finished in a faux whisper.

"I-"

"_Second_ thing-"

"Tattletale." A calm, but powerful voice interrupted Tattletale's speech.

"Hmm." Tattletale turned to look at the door. "Who is-Wahh!" She fell out of her chair in a heap.

If Piggot were any less composed, she would have done the same. As is, she managed for 'merely' a heavy widening of the eyes.

Clothed in black and gray, the intimidating form of Alexandria filled the doorway.

"Wh-who what?" Tattletale stuttered. "Erm..." She picked herself off the floor, and sat back down in her chair. "...Hi?"

"Tattletale." Alexandria repeated. "You get it."

"What?" Tattletale blinked in confusion.

"You get your position of power in this conversation, and you get your team. You possess one of the extremely few powers that work on Buster in any capacity at all, and we have reason to believe that she may have some stability problems." Alexandria spoke. "Stability problems enough, that anything that may mitigate them is valuable. But that's all you get."

"Buster? Uh, she's powerful and all, but I _really_ don't think soloing the ABB is worth _Alexandria_ showing up for my conversion to herodom. What's the catch? And don't tell me there isn't one, there's clearly something-"

"That's enough." Alexandria interrupted Tattletale. "We, and by that I mean the Chief Director and I, have reason to believe Buster's importance extends significantly beyond merely 'soloing' the ABB. Your power is extensive, we wouldn't be pushing for you so hard if it wasn't, so you may very well be able to figure something out." Alexandria paused. "I imagine your power can fill you in from there."

Tattletale gulped slightly. "Uh, yeah. I can... take a hint."

Alexandria nodded. "Good, the officer will take you back to your team, now. You will be notified if anything further is required of you."

Tattletale left with the same PRT officer who brought her in.

"You know, I _am_ the director of this base." Piggot scowled slightly. "I would have liked to have some notice of your showing up, and I would appreciate you not directing my own officers in the future."

"My apologies." Alexandria inclined her head. "But you needed someone with a powerful reputation to break the stride of that girl, unless you wanted the entire PRT building converted into the Undersiders hot tub before you got anything vaguely resembling an agreement out of her."

"True." Piggot admitted. "And that's the only reason I'm not calling up Legend and the Chief Director to file a complaint."

Alexandria nodded. "Good day then, Director Piggot."

Alexandria left the room, and Piggot let out a long suffering sigh.

* * *

"So how'd things go, Tatts?" Regent questioned.

"Well, I got to experience what it was like to have Alexandria all but threaten to kill you." Tattletale replied. "Not fun, let me tell you that."


	3. Side Stories: Setting off the Bomb

Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower Setting off the Bomb

_Between 3.4 and 3.5, in another universe..._

"Ah, you are Buster, yes?" Trickster smiled and spoke.

"Yes." A weary, slightly depressed and haunted Taylor Hebert spoke. "What do _you_ want?"

"Ah, well, to be blunt, you gone." He tipped his hat, still smiling. "Our... employer has deemed you to be too great a threat to stay around. Your... highly recent incident has assured him that it would be best for all concerned if you were to leave Brockton Bay."

The scarf and goggles combo proved sufficient to hide Taylor's pained face from the Travelers, as she internally contemplated if he was right.

Sundancer balked slightly. "I... is coming right out and saying it the best idea?"

Genesis, currently projecting the form of a large fire breathing cat, rumbled agreement.

"Oh? Do you care about her feelings that much?" Trickster questioned with an amused look. "Even then-"

"No, I just mean... _Lung_." And Sundancer left it there, as if it explained everything.

The considering frown on Trickster's face implied that it did. "I suppose your right. Ah well, maybe the direct confrontation wasn't the best of plans. But what's done is done, and-"

"Look." Taylor, aggravated, tired and hiding her pain cut him off. "I... today's been a bad day. I just want to go home, you can tell your boss he can fuck off."

"Ah." The smile faded from Trickster's face. "I was afraid you would say something like that."

A pause, and Trickster winced slightly.

Recovering from the sudden onset of pain, Trickster's face dipped into a frown. "An unexpected difficulty. I was not aware power immunity was included amongst your power set." He sighed. "We do this the hard way."

There was a slight moment of hesitation on Genesis' part.

A memory of Noelle locked in the basement, and their best hope for fixing it, steeled her resolve.

With a bestial roar, Genesis made her attempt at intimidation and leaped into the air, as fire in turn sprung forth from her jaws.

Taylor, depressed and emotionally compromised, couldn't even work up the will to _attempt_ to fight.

She mentally faded into the background.

A thundering roar, a crackling red light, and Genesis' projection broke itself on the power emanating forth from the now cold eyed Taylor.

The shattered limbs and body of the projection fell to the ground.

The previously quiet Ballistic sucked air through his teeth.

Trickster's eyes widened behind his mask. "...Could be a problem, yes."

Taylor turned to look at the Travelers.

A hint of panic entered Ballistic. His eyes darted in search of the biggest thing he could find.

He found it.

A dash, and Ballistic stamped down on a shattered piece of concrete. He injected his power.

A sonic boom, and the shattered concrete smashed into Taylor with the force of a freight train.

The pass of the improvised weapon left a cloud of concrete dust in the air.

"_Not _okay." Sundancer whirled on Ballistic. "You just _killed-_"

A flash of red, various bits of concrete and asphalt flying through the air, dispersed the dust cloud.

Taylor lifted herself out of her kneeling position, fingers pulling out of ten lines of shattered concrete, and _moved_.

Four times faster than the fastest speed a human could possibly reach, Taylor ate up the ground at a terrifying rate.

Sundancer panicked, and a brilliant ball of incredible heat burst into existence in front of her.

She realized her mistake a moment later, and began to shout. "Wait no stop-!"

Taylor burst out the other end of the fireball, clothes not even singed.

A look of shock and relief crossed Sundancer's face.

"Fucking _Coil..._" Trickster breathed out.

Taylor raised her hand in the direction of Sundancer, a red light beginning to emanate.

Trickster, habit proving to be his downfall, attempted to switch the positions of Taylor and Sundancer.

A flash of pain as his power failed, and it was too late.

Sundancer barely had time to let out the slightest scream as the top half of her body faded away in a flash of red light.

Time seemed to stop for the remaining Travelers, as a steaming abdomen connected to a pair of legs fell to the ground.

Ballistic heaved slightly, Trickster's hands shook, and an unearthly howl filled the air as the recovering projection of Genesis turned from a fire breathing cat into a swirling mass of flesh that could not decide _what_ it wanted to be anymore, and flung itself at Taylor.

The still howling mass fell upon Taylor, and ten-thousand teeth – each stronger than any steel – attempted to rip and tear the girl apart.

The earth shook, as a deep reverberating sounded and Genesis projection vanished in a torrent of Omni-directional red light.

The rest of the Travelers, were nowhere to be found.

Slowly teleporting across nearby rooftops, Trickster grunted as he held back Ballistic.

"Let me at her!" He shouted. "She _killed Mars_!"

"There's nothing we can do!" Trickster shouted back. "You saw what she did; _nothing_ we have could scratch her."

"Fuck that shit!" He shrugged himself out of Trickster's hold, and began searching. "All I need is a big enough object. I'll through a whole damn building at her! Fuck!" He turned to look back with hate. "I'll throw this entire city no, the entire _fucking continent_ at her!"

Trickster stared at Ballistic. "You're crazy. We need to go back and get Noelle out of here-"

"It's always about Noelle isn't it?" Ballistic bitterly remarked. "You care more about her than any of us."

Trickster deadpanned. "Of course I do, she's my girlfriend you idiot. That doesn't mean you're not my friends too. Besides." He looked at the figure of Armsmaster driving up. "I imagine she has bigger problems now."

Armsmaster arrived at the scene of the reported damage. It hadn't taken him long to get there – with recent events, keeping an eye on Buster was important. – But he wasn't prepared for this.

Armsmaster looked at the emotionless Buster, the scene of destruction, and the charred lower half of a woman.

Fuck. Double Fuck. Triple Fuck.

The words 'worst case scenario' blaring through his head, he attempted communication nonetheless. "Buster, what the _hell _happened here?"

No answer forthcoming, Armsmaster internally groaned and moved forward. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you into custody – temporarily, of course. You understand?"

_That_ got a reaction out of her. A step back, a turn of her body towards a profile position, and a clear readiness for combat indicated she _didn't_ understand.

Armsmaster tensed and-

"Holy _shit_." Clockblocker spoke out. "What the hell happened here?"

Armsmaster, if he survived this, would never tell anyone the words 'worster case situation' crossed his mind at the moment. Clockblocker, Vista, Browbeat and Gallant had shown up. "What the _hell_ are you doing here?"

"We, uh, heard about the ABB thing from Velocity, and we came to make sure Buster was okay." Vista explained.

"Well, the ABB thing is _happening again_." Armsmaster barked. "So get out of here, now!"

Browbeat frowned. "We can help, you know-"

Buster, evidently tiring of the situation, stepped forward. Fingers splayed outwards, palm to the side she took another step, shoving forward alongside it, and a pillar of red light issued forth from the palm of her hand.

The screaming roar of thunder, and Browbeat vanished in a mist of red blood.

Armsmaster's fingers felt numb. He had failed. The temptation to drop his halberd and fall to the ground was high, but he maintained his composure.

The rest of the Wards... not so much.

Clockblocker had torn his face mask off, uncaring for his identity anymore, and was currently heaving into the ground.

Gallant was heavily trembling. In some ways, Armsmaster mused, Gallant was even stronger than him. He must have felt Browbeat's emotions in the last few seconds before his death. And yet the boy was still standing.

And Vista...

Vista had begun screaming. And wasn't stopping. Only the slightest break to take another breath broke her continuous and unending assault on her own vocal cords.

Another flash, as Buster struck again.

Space bent, warped and pulled as Vista exercised her power to its limits.

A lens of focused space bent another titanic light construct to the side, a dozen buildings shattering in its path.

Another launched into the sky, and one more launched into the ground, the crater of destruction mitigated by Vista's impressive space bending efforts.

Buster stepped back, and set her stance.

The probing was over, Armsmaster thought with horror.

Both hands splayed before her, Buster unleashed not a ball or a pillar or even a wave, but a torrential onslaught of red light.

Air crackling with more energy than Armsmaster's scanners had ever seen in their lives, Armsmaster barely managed to get himself out of the way of the edge of the blast.

A lens of space attempted to direct the wave away, but the radius was too extensive, Vista's powers could not bend such a huge amount of space.

The containment failed, the energy got through, and Vista's screams faded under the high pitched whine of energy.

Armsmaster clenched his fists in anger. He hadn't done _anything_. Just sat there standing in dumbfounded awe as a _twelve_ year old girl accomplished more than he did, and watched as she _died_.

He picked himself up off the ground, and observed the aftermath.

As expected, Vista and Gallant were nowhere to be seen. A piece of floating concrete, a faint sobbing coming from behind it, left some hope, however.

Steeling himself, Armsmaster called out. "Clockblocker! If you're still alive back there, get out of here! I'll try and hold her off." A lost cause, he knew. But he had to _try_.

He didn't wait for a response, as he turned to face Buster with a dark look on his face. Mentally activating the communication systems in his helmet, he began to call out to Miss Militia. "Activate the Sirens, now-" He choked, a fiery pain in his stomach.

"Armsmaster, what's wrong?" Miss Militia questioned.

Armsmaster stared down at the thin beam of red energy extending from Buster's fingers into his stomach. "S-sirens." He coughed out.

"Armsmaster, speak to me!" Miss Militia began to shout.

"S-ssorry." He managed, just before the beam lanced up and through his body.

Armsmaster fell to the ground, top half bisected down vertically. And in the background, a faint sobbing continued.


End file.
